1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to deduplication storage systems, and in particular to a method and system for storing backup data from multiple clients in a multi-level and multi-mode cloud-based deduplication storage system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Storage systems often receive backup data from multiple clients. For example, a cloud-based backup storage system may receive backup data from multiple independent clients. Each customer may wish to keep their individual data separate from other customers' data for security reasons. This may complicate the ability of the storage provider to optimize the storage of data. For example, the backup storage system may employ a deduplication scheme to reduce storage utilization. However, if data from individual clients is isolated from other clients' data, the storage system may store duplicate data across different clients, increasing the storage requirements of the backup storage system. Therefore, a need exists in the art for a deduplication scheme to maintain data security and maximize storage utilization in a multi-tenanted backup storage system.
In view of the above, improved methods and mechanisms for efficiently managing a deduplication storage system are desired.